The descriptions below are based mainly on the information provided by the suppliers themselves.
Last updated on December 4th.
AlphaLaw
has been providing legal software for over 25 years.
The company has over 1,600 firms throughout the UK and Ireland using their systems - probably more users
than any other supplier. Users range from the large multi-branch, city centre style of
firm to the high street practice and single practitioner.
The products available under the AlphaLaw name are as follows:
AlphaLAW-esprit is the legal professions most widely used integrated accounting, time recording,
reporting and document production system, specifically designed for the smaller high street firm or sole practitioner.
AlphaLAW-vantage is the fully integrated Legal Practice Management System, for the larger and multi office
firm of up to 300 fee earners. The component applications interconnect via a commonly shared relational database.
AlphaLAW-Vantages new CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) facility integrates computers and
telephones to offer law firms a new way to boost firm productivity and efficiency.
The new AlphaLAW-Vantage ePost facility is an integrated document scanning and management system
for firms wanting to manage inbound and outgoing correspondence. This facility, coupled with a scanner,
enables a law firm to transform paper documents into information that is easily integrated into
AlphaLAW-Vantage applications, such as Time Recording and Matter Enquiry.
AlphaLAW-Uno is a Microsoft .Net based Case Management system that provides extensive and advanced
workflow functionality for law firms, enabling the building of complex document based collaborative solutions.
This is a total redesign of case management in both approach and functionality and is a result of the experience
gained over many, many years in designing and supporting such systems.
AlphaLaw has been taken over by
Iris Legal.
Axxia is a leading UK supplier with a
range of software called Arista. There are
also 20 Arista users in Eire and 2 in Northern Ireland using the
full range of Axxia FED and Case Manager software.
See main entry for Axxia here. Axxia has been taken over by LexisNexis
eXpd8 case management software is an intuitive software interface
which pulls together all work done on a particular case or matter or project by any member of the team
and in any file format. The software allows users to find information quickly when needed, regardless
of who created it or when. It integrates well with Microsoft office and also includes
a scanning functionality and automation of brief generation.
There is now also solicitors accounts software available which integrates with the case management software
to provide a seamless flow of activity on a clients file to the ledger
card, avoiding duplicate data entry and speeding up the process so that work
done can quickly become billable hours. The system automatically creates its own
fully auditable trail on each file.
You can view a video overview of the software on the site.
Fanore Software, based in Fanore, County Clare,
provide publishing and management tools. In particular, they offer a simple web management suite
suitable for the legal profession that combines easy to use
content production tools requiring basic computer skills (word processing etc.) and a full auditing trail
that enables suitably qualified personel to review and approve content changes before they are
published online. They also provide a range of document indexing and retrieval services that can be used
on an intranet. Clients include Simon McAleese, The Planning Tribunal, The Moriarty
Tribunal and the Morris Tribunal.
Contact David Kelly.
Harvest Software produce the popular Harvest Law management
accounting software for solicitors.
It is a powerful, easy to use system and is currently installed is approximately 500 solicitor firms.
Keyhouse is based in County Wicklow.
Contact Brian Sweeney, 01 204 0020, email brian@keyhouse.ie.
They supply an accounts system called SAM3 which is a good modern Windows-based system. There
are around 120 legal firms in Ireland using the system including some large ones. They
have recently taken over a case management system supplier called Lawsoft and there are
plans under way to integrate the two systems.
Lawsoft is a case management system recently taken over by Keyhouse - see above.
Legal & General Software, based in Dublin, provide
Lex Solicitor Accounts Software. This is compliant with Revenue and Law Society Regulations, but above all
is easy to use and is supported by experienced Accounts personnel.
There are now Users in every County in Ireland.
They also supply Legal Precedent Software together with Computerised Requisitions On Title.
Legal & General Software are also the main suppliers of customized Accounts Software for Barristers.
Legal Evolve from Documatics is Case Management Software –
Designed for Solicitors by Solicitors. The system stores all the details gathered about a particular case
in one centralised location. All of the necessary information can be easily retrieved at the click of a button.
Storing all the information for a case in one convenient and central location allows your office to manage and
organise data more efficiently. Multiple users can work on the one case in concurrence, and the CheckIn/CheckOut
facility ensures that no one’s work is overridden.
It has been created through years of experience in the legal industry.
Legal IT is based in Dublin and Cork and is a
reseller in Ireland of TFB's "Partner for Windows" suite. TFB is probably the largest UK provider
of legal systems with around 1,000 firms using their systems. Legal IT's directors include Irish solicitor Frank Lanagan and
three legal software experts. See also notes on TFB.TFB has been taken over by
Tikit.
Nivotec is a leader in digital dictation and speech recognition
solutions operating since 1998, primarily in Northern Ireland and
Republic of Ireland. It offers a compete portfolio of solutions that can
be tailored to suit any legal environment, from single Fee Earner to
large law firms. Nivotec is a Philips Master Digital Centre - Enterprise
(MDCe), Philips Speech Recognition Systems (SpeechMagic) installer,
Olympus Pro Partner, as well as BigHand, Nuance and Voicepath partner. This is a
one-stop shop for any digital dictation, workflow management or speech
recognition requirement for any legal practice
Opsis Ltd are an Irish company with offices
in Dublin & Belfast and have been providing software solutions to the legal sector in Ireland for over 20 years.
In that time OPSIS have established themselves as the number one provider of case management systems in
Northern Ireland and have a fairly substantial share of the market within the Republic of Ireland. OPSIS have a
client base of over 800 law firms throughout Ireland and the UK.
OPSIS now offers legal accounts as well as case management software with product solutions available for
sole practitioners to huge multi-national firms. The respective packages can be used independently or
fully integrated to provide a comprehensive practice management system.
Small Practice System (SPS): Offers smaller and start-up firms (up to 5 users) a fully integrated
accounts and case management system at an extremely affordable price.
Millennium Solo: A single user accounts system designed for sole practitioners and small firms. Affordable
monthly payment options are available together with clear upgrade options as and when your firm expands.
Millennium Legal Accounts: Provides comprehensive cashier facilities for your accounts department with
a wide range of management accounting reports for senior partners. Automated time recording facilities are
available within the Fee Earner’s Desktop plus user friendly fee earner performance reports.
Solicitor Case Manger: A generic case management system that offers extensive document production and
time recording facilities. It is fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook for task & diary management.
Practice Management System (PMS): A comprehensive practice wide system offering all of the technologically
advanced features the medium to larger firm requires in today’s busy legal office environment.
Weblink: An innovative on-line case tracking facility which allows firms to keep their clients and referrers
fully informed on the progress of their cases 24/7, 365 days a year. Opsis has been taken over by
Iris Legal.
Relay Software Ltd distributes the "Osprey" software provided
by UK legal software supplier Pracctice (see also notes on Pracctice here.)
Osprey is an established and mature product. It is a fully integrated Practice Management System, which
includes comprehensive accounts, time recording, document management as well as case management.
Osprey Web Publisher will also allow firms to offer online case tracking.
A full management suite of reports are available, with an additional custom report designer.
Osprey is integrated with Microsoft Outlook for central diary. Relay have offices in Belfast and Dublin.
Solcara provides software that connects people to information that matters,
when it matters most. They streamline access to critical business content, ensuring you deliver an exceptional and
timely service to your customers and stakeholders in all situations.
Solcara SolSearch is designed to deliver improved efficiencies and cost savings when searching for and accessing
primary sources of legal information. It has become the solution of choice in the Irish legal market and supports
searching of commonly used Irish resources such as Firstlaw, Westlaw.ie, Justis, PLC, The Oireachtas,
The Irish Statute Book, plus many more. Additionally, Solcara SolSearch integrates searching across
internal resources such as the Autonomy iManage (formerly Interwoven) document management system,
the library catalogue, and other searchable resources used across the firm. It does this without the need for
expensive indexing software and consultancy typically associated with other solutions.
Solcara SolSearch is an essential tool for any organisation that needs easy and efficient access to information
that resides in multiple locations, databases and formats. Solcara SolSearch connects to target resources and
searches the existing indexes in real time. This means it does not rely upon additional and high cost indexing
software. This also ensures results are consistent and up to date. Solcara SolSearch has
been deployed in organisations of all sizes including major UK Government Departments, and leading law firms in the
UK, Channel Islands and Ireland.
